Violinist – Sunny Roh

Violinist Sunny Roh performed internationally throughout Europe, Australia, England, Korea and Russia. Her debut in Australia performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Harding and winning the Ku-ring-gai Competition and the Queensland National Concerto Competition with Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.2. She is also a 2^nd Prize winner of the International Gisborne Music Competition in New Zealand.   

As a recipient of the prestigious four-year full scholarships from the Royal Academy Music, she studied with Mateja Marinkovic. She was invited as a Soloist to perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Royal Academy Orchestra and won the prominent prizes including the David Martin/Florence Hooten Prize and the Alfred J.Waley Violin Prize. She was invited to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Horsham Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Pope.

After graduating with First class honours, she studied Master of Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium with Dr. Goetz Richter and won the University scholarship to participate at the music festival in Leipzig, Germany and was invited to perform as a soloist with the Accademia Capella Orchestra at St. Petersburg, Russia, Concerto movement written for her and gave recitals in St.Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. 

She was selected to join the Verbier UBS Festival Orchestra in Switzerland and toured throughout USA and Europe with the conductor, Charles Dutoit. Soon after, she received the scholarship to join the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and studied with Oleg Kaskiv and many artists such Jeremy Menuhin, Werner Schmitt, Alberto Lysy, Mikaela Martin, Philippe Graffin, Nobuko Imai, Gyula Stuller, Gabor Takacs, Liviu Prunaru, Bogdan Zvoristeanu and many others. 

She won the prestigious scholarship from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Italy to study with Giuliano Carmignola, later became her mentor and studied further at the Luzern School of Music, Switzerland, specializing in Baroque and Classical repertoire interpretation. 

She was appointed as a Second Concertmaster of Symphony Orchestra St. Gallen in Switzerland. She was invited as a Soloist with her orchestra and performed chamber music with the principal members of her orchestra. 

She is relocated in Sydney and teaches Violin and Chamber Music at the Roh Academy and engages in many performance projects.

Assistant Conductor – Ben Perche

Ben is an young conductor from Sydney passionate about new music and music education.  

Ben completed a Bachelor of Music Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied oboe and conducting. Ben conducts a number of concert bands across Sydney from primary through to high school, and also regularly works in music extension programs such as the Northern Sydney Symphonic Wind Ensemble and State Music Camps run by The Arts Unit in the Department of Education. Ben is passionate about musical theatre and has conducted or played in pits for productions of Little Women the Musical, Shrek the Musical, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, among others. 

Ben has attended and participated in many conducting courses around Australia. He was a participant in the Melbourne Youth Orchestra Conductor Development Program in 2019, has been a participant in several ABODA Summer Conducting Schools as well as a number of other single day workshops. Ben also attended the Australian Conducting Academy with the TSO in 2020 as an observer. 

As an oboist, Ben has played with the Regional Youth Orchestra, and worked with musicians from the Australian World Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Staatskapelle Berlin.

Recorder – Alicia Crossley

Alicia Crossley is one of Australia’s leading recorder players. She performs a wide variety of repertoire from renaissance dance tunes to contemporary electro-acoustic works with a particular interest in bass recorder repertoire.

In 2010 Alicia completed her Masters of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the instruction of Hans-Dieter Michatz. Since then Alicia has won several competitions and awards including the Don Cowell Memorial Trust Recorder Competition (2011), the Australia Council’s ArtStart Grant (2013), and the Fine Music 102.5 Kruger Scholarship (2014). In 2011, Alicia released her debut solo CD Addicted to Bass featuring seven newly commissioned Australian works for bass recorder, followed by her second solo CD Alchemy in 2015, which was nominated for Best Classical Music Album by AIR. In 2018 Alicia released her third CD Muse with the acclaimed Acacia Quartet, which was nominated for Best Classical Album by ARIA. Recently, Alicia released her fourth CD Bass Instincts, featuring compositions that showcase the instinctual musicality, versatility and virtuosity of the bass recorder.

An experienced recorder player, Alicia regularly performs throughout Australia and has toured in the USA and New Zealand. She has presented works at a number of festivals and conferences including Four Winds Festival (2022), Tilde New Music Festival (2019), Electro-Fringe (2018), Metropolis (Melbourne 2017), Aurora Festival (Sydney 2012, 2014), Vivid Festival (Sydney 2013), ACMC (Brisbane, 2012), Electronic Music Midwest (Chicago, 2012), and SEAMUS (Minnesota, 2013), and has performed with Pinchgut Opera, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Salut! Baroque, The Sydney Consort, and The Marais Project. Alicia is also a member of the unique and vibrant ensemble Duo Blocksti

 Trainee Composer- Lucy Blomfield

Lucy Blomfield is in her 4th year of composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, currently undertaking her honours degree. She is studying under Australian composer, Paul Stanhope, and has a particular interest in writing choral music. She has recently had works premiered by the University of Houston’s new music ensemble, Aura, and the Sydney Conservatorium’s Chamber Choir. Lucy is passionate about working with and performing with ensembles, and recently had her conducting debut with the Beecroft Orchestra under Joanna Drimatis. Lucy currently works as a choral scholar at St James’ Church King Street and is a member of the St Paul’s College choir.

Tristan Entwistle

Tristan completed his Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium. Since 2021, he has been a regular performer in the Opera Australia Schools Tour, performing the roles of Ferdinand (El Kid – 2023), Don Magnifico/King (Cinderella – 2022), and Figaro (The Barber of Seville – 2021). He has also been a member of the Opera Australia Chorus since 2018.

His other opera/operetta roles include Figaro (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Il Conte (Le Nozze Di Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Nardo (La Finta Giardiniera), Silvio (Pagliacci), Marcello (La Bohème), Alcindoro (La Bohème), Escamillo (Carmen), Germont (La Traviata), Barone Douphol (La Traviata), Dottor Grenvil (La Traviata), Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), Elder McLean (Susannah), Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park), Giove (La Calisto), the Drunken Poet/Corydon (The Fairy Queen), the Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance), and Giuseppe Palmieri (The Gondoliers).

Tristan was a finalist in the 2017 German Australian Opera Grant, in the 2018 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition (“The Mathy”), and in the 2019 Joan Carden award.

Samanta Lestavel

Samanta recently enjoyed her role debut as The Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. She has performed the following principal roles between 2016-2023: Frasquita (Bizet: Carmen), Countess Almaviva (Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro), Adele (J. Strauss, Die Fledermaus), Belinda (Purcell, Dido and Aeneas), Pamina (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte), Blondchen (Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Calisto (Cavalli: La Calisto), Zerlina (Mozart: Don Giovanni), Patience (Gilbert and Sullivan, Patience), Despina (Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte), Lucy (Menotti: The Telephone), Mary Crawford (Jonathan Dove: Mansfield Park, Australian premiere), and Angelina (Gilbert and Sullivan, Trial by Jury).
Samanta is always drawn to opportunities which are unconventional and new. She has occasionally moonlighted as a tenor and a mezzo-soprano, featuring as Mario Cavaradossi (Puccini: Tosca) and Pylade (Gluck: Iphigenie en Tauride) with The Cooperative in 2021, and as Count Orlofsky (Strauss: Die Fledermaus) with The Cooperative. 

Paige Gullifer

Paige Gullifer is a writer and classical saxophonist based in Sydney. In 2023 she completed her Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and was awarded First Class Honours. Paige has been awarded both the Henderson Bequest and the Conservatorium Mobility Scholarship, which have enabled her to participate in several programs in the United States, including a winter intensive at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2023. Most recently, Paige travelled to the European University of Saxophone, in Gap, France, with her ensemble, the Andromeda Saxophone Quartet.

Paige is a regular program note and copy writer for the Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and has enjoyed writing for the Australian Youth Orchestra and Ensemble Apex. In 2022, Paige was a contributing writer for the She Speaks festival, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of women in music. Paige has also been published in New York Public Radio’s New Sounds, reporting on the Bang on a Can Summer Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, where she completed a media fellowship.

As a performer, Paige has performed with the Australian Youth Orchestra, and in 2022 was a fellow with Brisbane-based Dots and Loops, a contemporary classical collective.

David Lin – Violinist

David Lin is a 13-year-old music scholarship holder at Trinity Grammar School. He first started learning violin at the age of 6, then joined the Sydney Conservatorium Rising Stars Program at age of 8 under the tutelage of Dr Evgeny Sorkin. Since 2020 David has been an awardee of the Victor Cromack and Melba Harris Cromack Memorial scholarship.

David achieved his Diploma (AmusA) at 10 and Licentiate (LMusA) at 11, both with distinction and has won multiple prizes at Sydney Music Eisteddfods in the past years. In 2022, David was awarded the Barbara Cran Award in the KPO’s NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition and this year, he received high commendation in the senior section as the youngest candidate. David is also passionate in chamber music and plays in various school orchestras and chamber ensembles.

Beyond his passion for music, David also loves maths and playing chess with his friends.

Leonard Tang – Violinist

Leonard Tang started learning violin at the age of five, under the guidance of Prof Zhang, continued his musical education with Dr. Evgeny Sorkin. Currently, he is a music scholar at Barker College and awarded a Victor Cromack and Melba Harris Cromack Memorial scholarship from Rising Stars Sydney Conservatorium.

Leonard has performed as a soloist in renowned venues such as the Sydney Opera House and Town Hall, captivating audiences with his expressive and technical prowess. He has also won multiple awards in the Sydney Eisteddfod, Northern Beach Eisteddfod, and Ryde Eisteddfod. Part of the String Quartet received recognition at the Sydney Eisteddfod. Leonard actively engages in Barker College’s Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Australia Youth Orchestra Summer Camp. Recently, he participated in National Youth Concerto Competition as one of the three finalists. 

Beyond music, Leonard has a strong passion for mathematics and has been invited to participate in the Australian Math Olympiad training camp and won various awards in the math competitions. He is also an avid chess player and enjoys playing tennis in his spare time.  

 Concerto:
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto

Toby Wong – Assistant Conductor

Toby Wong is currently Master of Music (Musicology) candidate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, supervised by Dr. David Larkin and Prof. Ian Maxwell. His research work focuses on musical exoticism, and modern productions of Puccini’s operas. Toby is also a young and energetic conductor of both orchestral and choral genres. He had his first conducting performance with his primary school orchestra at the age of 12. He is now the Assistant Conductor and Choral Scholar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir in Parramatta, and the Assistant Conductor of the Canada Bay Community Choir based in Drummoyne. Later this year, he will also start his position as the Assistant Conductor with the Beecroft Orchestra.

 Born and raised in Hong Kong, Toby graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Social Science (Global Studies), and was awarded the Multi-faceted Excellence Scholarship. In 2019, he was appointed as the Assistant Conductor of Cantabile Orchestra and Choir (Hong Kong), where he prepared and performed an array of musical genres with the orchestra and choir. In addition, he was the youngest-ever- appointed Music Director of St. Michael’s Choir in Holy Cross Church (Hong Kong) from 2013 to 2021.

 Apart from conducting, Toby is also a pianist, vocalist, and organist. He is now a tenor of the Sydney Chamber Choir and Christ Church St. Laurence Choir. He was also a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus, where he sang under the baton of various renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Jaap Van Zweden, Carlo Rizzi, and Karina Canellakis.

 Toby is passionate about promoting classical music through broadcasting. He is a Presenter in 2MBS Fine Music Sydney, and a Producer-Presenter of Radio Television Hong Kong’s classical music channel, RTHK Radio 4.